Graphic Novels – The Walking Dead

I take a brief look at the Graphic Novel book genre

Now, it could be argued that the graphic novel isn’t actually a book genre, but it provides reading material (albeit with a lot more images than a conventional book) and is a form of reading that a lot of people enjoy.

This month, for my boyfriend’s birthday I brought him the first two books in The Walking Dead graphic novel series. We both really enjoy the television series, so I thought why not try the graphic novels – having read that in the TV series whole characters are fabricated and the series deviates from the plot of the original graphic novels.

The first two graphic novels in the Walking Dead series

For this blog I thought it would be interested to have a look at a few graphic novels. I haven’t had a chance yet to read the two Walking Dead graphic novels I purchased (I thought seeing as they were birthday presents I had better let the recipient read them first!). But I did have a quick flick through and my first impression was that the detail in these novels was incredible!

The following photos are from Volume 1 – Days Gone By. I was careful not to include any spoilers so if you haven’t read them, it’s safe to look at the image as hopefully it doesn’t give anything away!

Pages from my copy of Volume 1 – Days Gone By

As you can see, there isn’t a lot of text on the page but there is plenty to look at. I am being very stereotypical here but I can see why this genre is so popular with boys, who probably aren’t as likely to sit down and read chunks of text. This form of novel makes it easy to get through a lot of quality content quickly.

Close up of an image from my copy of Volume 1 – Days Gone By

Although I think boys might prefer this genre to girls, I am still really excited to have a look through these properly! The images are just so detailed and if the television series is anything to go by, the story line of these novels will be brilliant too!

Out of interest I had a look at for some more graphic novels and I found this post from Gear Patrol, looking at the Top 10 must own graphic novels ranging from the Best Ghost story to the Best Manga. As I’m not very clued up on the subject, this is one of the best sites I found if you want to know more!

If you want even more, GQ have done a rundown of 20 graphic novels every man (or women) should read. It’s a photo gallery and doesn’t have much detail on the novels themselves but it might throw up some ideas! You can find the page here.

And for the well-read graphic novel fan, webpage Forbidden Plant have done a countdown of the 50 best graphic novels. Volume 1 of the Walking Dead series has made it to number 33 on the list. The list also includes lots of Batman, the Joker, Watchmen and Marvel for comic books fans. And Hellboy and V for Vendetta for anyone who has seen the movies. This long list can be found here and is worth having a look at.

Have you read any graphic novels? What do you think of them as a book genre? Do you even class them as a book? Let me know in the comments!